Younger’s most progressive characters in the show, Nico Tortorella and Debi Mazar, talk about their favorite boroughs, Josh’s heartbreak from the season 3 finale, and advice on how to raise a child and balance a career all at the same time.
This one is for you Debi, being that you are born in Queens and film mostly in New York (Brooklyn). What is your favorite borough?
Debi: Oh, my favorite borough is hands down Brooklyn. I was born in Queens, but I lived in Brooklyn for a lot of my life now. In fact, I moved to LA for many years and I came back and I brought my husband who is from Italy and my children back to Brooklyn, so they can go to school in the neighborhood where I went to school.
After what we saw in the last season, will Josh give Liza another chance? How will he handle it?
Nico: I think Josh was really ready and willing to put it all on the table for this woman and it just all got taken away from him very very quickly. I think Josh likes to think that he is really progressive in the way he treats relationships– he gave her the free card and everything– but I think at the end of the day, given the circumstances of him walking in at that given moment like that’s it, he is done. Not only did he see Liza kiss another man, but it’s also her boss who he knows she’s lying to as well so it’s just this problem that is continuing. She is ultimately, like Josh said, hurting everyone around her. I just think season 4 really is just like Josh coming to terms with what he wants out of life and out of a partner. We get to see Josh’s life outside of the rest of the series regulars on the show which is is really nice.
Do you think Liza can win Josh’s heart back?
Nico: I don’t think Josh has a place in his heart for Liza, at least not right now. She like ripped it up, spit it out, ate it, threw it back up, shit on it and then burned it on fire.
Do you think, being a mother, it is hard to get out of the industry and raise a child and then want to come back–all to be looked down upon like in the show?
Debi: No, I think all that is a big load of shit, I will tell you why. Because, people, for thousands of years, women always had to work and women are stronger than anybody. They go back, they carry the weight of the laundry, then the food, cooking, getting a job, taking care of a baby, and getting up in the middle of the night, for the most part. In modern times, you got to go back to work, unless someone is like taking care of you and you come from a rich family. But even if you do, you still might want to go back to work. I think that when people wave that little flag it really bugs me out because a lot of women waste their time, ‘Oh, I can’t have a baby just yet, I need to have my career. If I have a baby it’s going to ruin my career.’ It’s so not true, I know strippers who have little tiny waists and they have a baby and they go back to being fabulous. You can lose the weight, yes it’s not going to be easy, but you can figure it out. It is life.
Are you both like your characters?
Debi: I’m very different to my character in the sense that, I’m much more narcotic, I’m un-careful, I’m not a slut. My character is free willing and I’m much more calculated than my character, [Maggie] is easy breezy. I’m like always figuring shit out. She’s relatable to me, I know people like her and I had based some of her things on people that I know.
Nico: I feel like I am really driven by my heart and I will say Josh is too. I am unlike Josh, I would say I have a lot less really bad tattoos that Josh has. But over time really the writers start writing for you as the character. So as time passes there is a lot more of me in Josh.
Now Nico, your character, and Liza left off season 3 at a very heart-breaking scene. And in season 4, are you and Hillary Duff’s character going to cope with it together knowing her lies and secret? Is there anything steamy brewing between both characters?
Nico: Yeah we get married at the end of the season actually (laughs). Just kidding. I don’t know, we will see, I think it makes perfect sense that the two of them are in this friendship right now. I mean they were betrayed by the same person, so they have that common grounds to jump off of. And where it goes from there, only time will tell. This is a Darren Star television show, after all, the possibilities are endless.
On collaborating with him, were you two ever fans of Sex and the City?
Nico: Oh yes, of course.
Debi: Yeah, I’ve always been a fan of Darren Star, he writes really fun stuff.
Nico: Well he writes women as gay men. He is telling all these gay men stories as women, which is so fucking genius.
What about your character, Maggie, are you going to advise Liza to spill the beans to everyone else?
Debi: Well you know, I never met Charles, my character never met him, so I’ve only seen like the outline of his hard-on in a screen grab on an iPad in season 3. But big dicks are a dime a dozen. That wouldn’t be why she needs to be with Charles, I’m sure Josh is well and endowed too.
Nico: I mean Maggie knows the power of the strap on too. So it’s not like it really matters.
Debi: I think that I always do give Liza advice, it starts off when I’m actually reading her a little bit. So there is a lot of heightened drama of people getting into this phase, like ‘what really?’ She also is giving me advice too and I think this particular season we’re getting a little more real with each other, in terms of advice and pushing things to the limit and making that bond of friendship like family.
*New Seasons Premiere on Wednesday, June 28th at 10 pm and 10:30 pm ET/PT on TV Land*